Amid the ongoing feud between India head coach Gautam Gambhir and former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting, ex-cricketer Brad Haddin has revealed the reason behind the war of words between the two. It all kicked off after Gambhir replied to Ponting over his comments on star India batter Virat Kohli’s concerning form ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Gambhir asked him to concentrate on Australian cricket instead, before the legendary batter fired a sharp retort, calling the India coach a prickly character.

Gambhir played under Ponting at Delhi Capitals in 2018, which turned out to be his final season in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as a player. He only played half of the games that season, with Shreyas Iyer leadng the side for the remaining matches.

However, Haddin teased to lift the lid on the backstory between the two, which he reveal in the coming days.

“Gambhir is a character that would use this as an us versus them mentality. And you expect your coach to stick up for the players. His reaction was prickly there, and you don’t need your coach to get caught up in that sort of scenario unless his tactics is to build an us versus them. I know what the backstory. I’ll tell you; just wait till later of the week. There was a little elbow, suspensions and fines,” Haddin said on LiSTNR Sport Podcast.

Haddin also compared Gambhir to Australian rugby coach Wayne Bennett, who often tries to take the pressure away from his team by taking the center stage.

“It’s out of the Wayne Bennett style of coaching. So we’re not really talking now about Rohit Sharma or [Virat] Kohli. We’re talking about Gambhir and Ricky [Ponting]. With Gambhir, he has bitten back, taken the pressure away from his team. It’s all about him now; it’s about how prickly he is. And now he might be able to go and prepare his team. You’d like to believe that he has a very clear plan on how they want to ready,” he pointed out.

While he did agree that Gambhir can be a “prickly character” at times, Haddin wondered if the latter is doing this on purpose, especially with his team under real pressure after losing the series to New Zealand.

“We know he’s a prickly character and can wind himself up. Is he doing this now to take it away from his teammates? I don’t know. Only time will tell. If it’s an emotional reaction, then there’s a problem. But if he’s doing it to deflect things away and take it [attention] away from his team, that’s a different thing,” he added.